Our attitude
toward our spouse must come from a fresh perspective each new morning. We
cannot hold each other in bondage to our mistakes in our recent or past choices.
Seeing one
another as Jesus sees us - as perfect in Him - helps us to forgive and let live.
Sure, we still have carnality at the root of our personality, but we are
growing out of that mindset as God's Spirit transforms us with the mind of
Christ.
Personal
adjustments are often required to have a good marriage. Rather than insisting
on our own way, we work together to find a third alternative, with which we can
both find fulfillment.
Soon we will
automatically work toward finding Plan C rather than pushing to do things our
way. We start to notice more of our mate's positive characteristics; in fact, some
of them drew us to our loved one in the beginning of our courtship.
Sometimes, over
the years of our marriage, we grow to resent some of the characteristics that
we initially admired. We falsely interpret our mate's motive as controlling,
weak, irritating, manipulative, etc.
This is
rarely the case. Our mate did not change; our attitude about these character
traits switched. If we look at our mate with fresh eyes, we see that God put us
together in order to allow our strengths to help one another's weaknesses.
Planning frequent
play time together as a couple will enhance our relationship and improve our
perspective of one another. We learn to laugh together again, to appreciate
each other, to listen quietly and compassionately to our individual fears and
concerns, and to admire and cherish each other.
Mutual love
and cherishing will change our attitude about one another. We enjoy each
other's company again and learn to appreciate each other's strengths, as we
humble our self while interacting with our mate.
Prayer:
Father God, help
us to develop good will toward one another rather than to feed the resentment
and hurt feelings that we have nursed over the years. Help us to interpret each
other's behavior as caring and nurturing rather than as controlling and
manipulative. We bring our hurt to You for healing as we reach out to each
other with Your Agape love.
Remind us
that rather than focusing on what we perceive as our mate's fault, we can learn
to see them for what they really are and focus on our own faults instead. You
will help us to meet our needs that we used to expect our mate to meet, and to
allow Your Spirit to change our negative traits with His fruit. This will help
us to grow in spiritual maturity, responsible reactions from our soul, and effectual
effort from our body as we grow together into one flesh.
Thought for
the Day:
As we
develop our sense of wonder and joy with the little blessings in life, we will
begin to reap the larger benefits that God has in store for us as individuals
and as a couple.
